Over the past decade, the ongoing climate change crisis has been a highly-debated concern for many people. Individuals’ stances on this issue often differ based on what political party they align themselves with, as climate change and global warming were, and still are, very politically charged topics. In fact, in 2013, 85% of Democrats said that they believed that there was solid evidence supporting global warming, while only 48% of Republicans responded in this way. In 2022, however, roughly two-thirds of Democrats (65%) say addressing climate change should be a top priority for Biden and Congress, compared with just 11% of Republicans. Evidently, there’s a declining trend for support over the past few years, but why’s it the case? Although both parties differ on various topics prevalent in our community today, they agree that other “high-demanding” concerns like abortion rights, healthcare policy, immigration policy, and taxes to name a few outweigh the crisis. Some people believe that such issues are problems of the present and should be resolved as quickly as possible, while putting other long-term issues like the climate change crisis “on the back burner” to be dealt with at a later time. However, it’s crucial that we take steps beforehand towards alleviating its effects because who knows what life on earth will be like in the future if we don’t take rapid action to cut emissions.
97% of scientists say humans are the cause of global warming, mainly attributed to the increased burning of fossil fuels. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, there has been 40% more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And right now, we are adding 70 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere on a daily basis. Given these harsh realities, President Biden outlined a bold plan a few years back — a Clean Energy Revolution — to address this threat and lead the world in addressing the climate emergency. There are nine key points to his plan: (1) take executive action to not just reverse all of the damage Trump has done, but go further and faster, (2) work with Congress to enact legislation that puts us on an irreversible path to achieve economy-wide net-zero emissions no later than 2050, (3) rally the world to urgent and additional action, (4) make investments in clean energy and innovation, (5) accelerate the deployment of clean technology throughout our economy, (6) make environmental justice a priority across all federal agencies, (7) hold polluters accountable, (8) create 10 million good-paying, middle-class, union jobs, and finally (9) fulfill our obligation to the communities and workers that have risked their lives to produce fossil fuels that made it possible for America to win world wars and become an industrial superpower. While creating such a plan is encouraging, not everyone will, of course, share similar views and be supportive of this initiative. And so, will President Biden’s declaration affirming the reality of the crisis be enough to convince the general populace to take action?
According to a recent Pew Research study done on Earth Day 2022, a 54% majority of adults under 30 believe the crisis should be a top priority, compared with smaller shares of Americans ages 30 to 49 (42%), ages 50 to 64 (36%) and ages 65 and older (39%). But why do older populations fail to realize the severity of the crisis? Some say that other health concerns consume their minds, while others argue that they are “on their deathbed” and, consequently, can’t do much.
In order to make any significant progress in reducing emissions to curb climate change, it is imperative that the general public become more informed about the topic, and recognize it as a serious threat to the human way of life — perhaps not right away, but definitely a threat to the quality of life experienced by our children and our children’s children. Moreover, people need to forget the polarizing politics associated with the issue. Once these things are accomplished, it will be possible for individuals to take action and collectively bring about a positive change. Additionally, once political stigma surrounding the issue is reduced and dissolved, policymakers will be able to move forward and carry out the necessary steps to pass legislation for a positive impact.
Take Antarctica as an example. Antarctica is rich in precious natural resources like ice, coal, metallic minerals, petroleum. A rise in global temperature has led to the warming of the Antarctic Peninsula, breaking the continent’s ice sheet and, consequently, decreasing the continent’s local species populations. Realistically speaking, human-caused issues put at risk the last pristine continent in the world, containing the world’s biggest source of freshwater, huge potential oil and natural gas reserves, and the key to determining how climate change will affect the world through rising sea levels.
Many organizations worldwide have already taken measures to combat the issue and alleviate the effects. For example, in the automotive industry, Tesla has already produced nearly 1.91 million electric vehicles since 2009, in accordance with its mission to “accelerate the world’s transition into sustainable energy.” Additionally, at least 92.7 billion solar panels have been installed across the world today, producing cleaner energy (i.e., electricity) that keeps us from burning fossil fuels. Some proposals for the future involve cooling Earth’s surface by spraying artificially-made, reflective particles into the planet’s atmosphere, scattering and reflecting sunlight back into space. Other proposals involve sowing the oceans with iron to cause large-scale phytoplankton growth, thereby removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Such methods could potentially work but require further research.
The climate change crisis is certainly a widely-overlooked issue in today’s world, though a minority does realize its importance and severity if left alone. Therefore, it’s of great importance that everyone is informed of its effects, especially our children who will carry on this mission into the future. All in all, everyone, regardless of political affiliation, has a responsibility to limit climate change, no matter how big or small of an impact it makes.
“Climate Change.” ITU, https://www.itu.int/en/mediacentre/backgrounders/Pages/climate-change.aspx.
Clement, Scott. “How Americans See Global Warming – in 8 Charts.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 26 Nov. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2013/04/22/how-americans-see-global-warming-in-8-charts/.
Schaeffer, Katherine. “For Earth Day, Key Facts about Americans’ Views of Climate Change and Renewable Energy.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 22 Apr. 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/04/22/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/.
I really enjoyed this blog post Anubhav. As a political science major, I am very interested in not only politics, but specifically environmental policy. I would definitely disagree with what seems to be the majority of our globe that addressing climate change should not be a top priority for our nation’s policy makers. It is so crazy how this issue is so polarized when it is directly affecting each and every one of us more than every other, whether we physically feel/see it or not. I am taking a course called BiSci 3 right now which focuses on the climate crisis we are experiencing and how us humans need to learn how to better connect with our planet in order to truly understand how we are harming Earth, why we should stop, and what we can do to stop. Your research and blog as a whole is very important, awesome work!